Greg Stumbo

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says his chamber's priorities for the next two-year budget are not that different from the Senate's.

Both chambers have passed their own budget bills for each branch of state government. The two sides must now work out a compromise. Stumbo says he doesn't have many concerns with the Senate's changes and he expects a conference committee to hatch a compromise quickly.

Whistleblowers in Kentucky could get financial incentives for reporting misuse of state tax dollars under a measure that passed the state House Monday. Speaker Greg Stumbo sponsored the bill now heading to the Senate for consideration. Stumbo says the bill, dubbed the "False Claims Act," could root out fraud and reduce the state's budget deficit by millions of dollars. Kentucky already has a whistle-blower law in place that applies to Medicaid programs.

Kentucky’s General Assembly is heading down the stretch in the 2012 legislative session.

Lawmakers have ten legislative days left to pass budget and road plan bills, in addition to any other matter.

Many important topics that were priorities for some lawmakers—like raising the dropout age, fixing the state’s problems with Medicaid Managed Care Organizations and drug abuse legislation—has yet to pass both chambers in the same form. This means for the bills to become law, legislators will have to form conference committees and reach an agreement.

Lawmakers have reached a compromise on a proposal to create more educational opportunities in eastern Kentucky.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo has been advocating to move the University of Pikeville into the state university system. But that proposal doesn't currently have the support to become reality, which forces supporters to adopt a compromise.

The Kentucky House is expected to vote on an austere state budget by the middle of next week. Speaker Greg Stumbo says he doesn't expect a lot of changes to Governor Steve Beshear's original budget proposal. The governor's $19.5 billion, two-year budget proposal includes 8.4 percent cuts to most state agencies. The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee vote is expected Tuesday.